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Hi all. My entry will be this 1/200 scale Avro Bison - a white metal kit produced by the late and lamented Shed Models. The Bison was a purpose built fleet spotter/reconnaissance aircraft that served initially with the RAF and then with the FAA, from 1922 to 1929. Some were shore based, whilst others were ship borne. All were incredibly ugly! My second-hand kit has a few issues, with some minor damage and missing parts. It also lacks its instruction sheet, just to make it harder to identify which parts have gone AWOL . On the plus side though, it has decals! I'm particularly looking forward to this one Cheers

Hi everybody! Totally unexpected my new project arrived today. As I already announced earlier it’s the tug boat SMIT Rotterdam/London by Heller in 1/200 scale. I will build this as the SMIT London, because it was the first of the two sister ships entering service and because this is BRITmodeller forum. But first a bit of history. SMIT London was built in The Netherlands by shipyard De Merwede NV in Hardinxveld and entered service in 1974. Constructed especially for towing of very heavy objects like oil rigs over long distances together with her sisters Rotterdam and Singapore these ships had been the most powerful and biggest tug boats of the world in their time with 22.000 hp engine power. They were also used for salvage assistance to ships in distress. Dimensions: 74,75m length overall 15,68m width 7,60m depth SMIT London was registered at shipping company SMIT Internationale in Rotterdam from 1974 till 1987, from 1987 till 1991 at SMIT Internationale in Nassau, from 1991 till 1998 as ‘SMITWIJS London’ at SMITWIJS Towage CV in Nassau, from 1998 till 2007 at Wijsmuller Scheepsholding BV in Singapore, from 2007 till 2013 as ‘London’ at Svitzer Ocean Towage BV in Singapore, and in 2013 her name was changed to ‘Global Change’ while being registered at Illiana Shipping Ltd. in Panama, but she was finally broken up in India in the same year. The box: What’s inside? Hull and deck parts Funnels, bridge parts, deck parts, detail parts Railing and anchor chain Decals Instructions come with a drawing of the paint scheme in the same scale as the model Seems like a nicely detailed kit. It comes as a starter kit, which has colours, glue and paint brush included. Also included is a gimmick, which made me smile: So on to new modelling horizons with my first ship build!

Hi all For the recent 40 years commemorative Falkland War GB, I built a 1/200 Vulcan and really enjoyed it. It's set me on a self-imposed mission to built all of the British Falkland War aircraft types in 1/200 scale. All I've achieved so far is to splash varying amounts of cash on obscure white metal or 3D-printed kits, which hopefully can form the basis of what I'm after. Really, it's time for me to get some of them on to my workbench and what better excuse than this Salty Sea Dog. I'm going to start with this pair of 3D-printed Sea Kings, which I bought via the Shapeways marketplace. At first sight these may appear identical, but in fact they're not. The one on the left (which is advertised as a Westland WS-61), features a dorsal radome but lacks an engine intake screen and a winch. The one on the right however (apparently a Sikorsky SH-3), has the screen and winch, but no radome. I'll be converting these to an HAS.2 and HC.4 respectively, possibly with one having folded rotors. Strangely, both models lack their starboard mainwheels, possibly as the results of a printing error. Slightly annoying, but easy to fix. Before anyone shouts, I should add that Sea King HAS.5s were also used in the Falklands War, so at some point I may need to buy another one of these tiddlers Merry Christmas.

Hi all. Having just completed my high-flying 1/200 Bristol 138, I've remembered that I also have another 1930's record breaker in my 1/200 kit stash. I wasn't planning to build it this year, but on reflection, if not now, when? It's the Fairey Long Range Monoplane which was developed specifically to break the world non-stop flight distance record. Apparently, it was also known as the Postal Aircraft (to hide its true purpose). Two aircraft were built, J9479 (Monoplane I), and later K1991 (Monoplane II). Sadly, in 1929 J9479 crashed in Tunis during a record attempt (killing both the crew members), but in February 1933 K1991 established a new record by flying from Cranwell to Walvis Bay, Namibia, a distance of 5410 miles (8540 km). Like my Bristol 138, I bought this kit second-hand. Unlike the Bristol though, the Fairey is un-started and comes with a decent set of decals . Hopefully it should be an easy one to complete by next weekend. According to Scalemates, this is one of only two kits produced of the Fairey LR Monoplane, the other being an old 1/72 vac-form produced by Airframe. Cheers

Hi all. I've just noticed that the GB deadline has been extended, so thought I might shamelessly exploit this opportunity to build another of my plentiful supply of rather tatty, second-hand 1/200 tiddlers. This one is the Bristol 138, which was built in the 1930s as a high altitude research aircraft. It ended up setting a total of nine altitude records, peaking at 53,937 ft (16,440m), on 30th June 1937. I'm sure that some of you will remember the FROG kit of this aircraft, but mine is a white metal kit, produced in the UK by Shed Models (unfortunately, now defunct). Mine has been started by a previous owner having added the engine and u/c. However, the latter is in a poor state - it's damaged and one side is longer than the other . It'll need to be re-done. There is a decal sheet but it's of poor quality and creased. Some of the shapes though, should come in useful as templates. I suppose I'd better get on with it!

Hello all, Possibly a slightly premature post, as I haven’t got the said kit yet, but I have lots of questions! I’ve been rambling on about maybe getting a 1/200 kit for a project on my 1/700 Bismarck build thread, and thought I probably ought to give it its own topic as I nearly bought one last night, and may well later today Bonkers really, as I’ve nowhere to put it, but once I get a bee in my bonnet, I can’t shake it loose! It didn’t have to be the Bismarck, but in terms of aftermarket and availability, it seems the obvious choice. I would have liked HMS Hood, but a couple of things held me back - no sea plane (I like having an aircraft to model)/ more expensive/ less aftermarket. The aftermarket options are slightly daunting, and here’s where I want some advice. Pontos do a ‘Super Detailed’ set and above that, an ‘Advanced’ set (15 sheets of PE compared to 11 on the SD). Mk.I Models do a deluxe set. Ka do a set, Trumpeter do their own set and the rather unfortunately named ‘I Love Kit’ do a set! Not all are easy to source. I have tracked down the ‘I Love Kit’ set 66602 from a UK model shop which seems to be the Pontos set re boxed? (but under the Trumpeter label) But which set it is I don’t know. The above offerings come with wooden decks, but I am rather attracted to the Scaledecks one. I think I’d have to get one from the States if I go down this route. Any thoughts on decks? I know one Scaledeck version comes with swastikas and one plain. I haven’t decided on a scheme yet (if any!). I realise there’s a ton of 3D (expensive!) printed parts out there. Any essentials? As I have no patience at all, I may buy later, but I’d appreciate a quick heads up before I do? I’d be very grateful for any input/ advice/ derision… ASAP! Thanks in advance, Guy ps any links to stellar build threads of the aforementioned kit would be helpful too…

Hi all. With my earlier dreams of building an ultra-fragile, 3D-printed, CRJ-1000 now shattered (quite literally), I feel that I've learnt my lesson. So this time around I've chosen a kit that's made from solid metal . It's a 1/200 scale DH9A kit, which was produced in Norfolk by a gentleman called Chris Sayer, trading as Shed Models. It's a beautiful little thing, representing the top end of quality white metal kits. Sadly, Chris passed away in 2019. In October 1920, a group of enthusiastic Canadian aviators completed the first air crossing of the nation, from Halifax to Vancouver. The flight was undertaken as a relay, using different aircraft for each leg. The final leg (Winnipeg to Vancouver), was flown using an ex-RAF DH9A, which is to be the subject of my build. As far as I can see, the aircraft still carried it's original RAF scheme, but to which had been added the Canadian civil registration G-CYAJ. Here's a link to a nice photograph of the plane and here's another to an article on the flight. The kit includes decals for RAF, RAAF, Soviet and Afghan aircraft, so I should be OK for the roundels at least. I'll probably try to add a little bit of rigging, but will draw the line at trying to replicate those spoked wheels Cheers

Calling this finished A MISC Freelancer from the Star Citizen game. The kit is by JRDF (JR Design & Fabrication), licenced from Roberts Space Industries. A feature of these kits is that some components are swappable, allowing varied display options. In this case, the landing gear and entry door (near front, port side). I also left the rear ramp loose/poseable, along with the turret (top rear).

Hi all, I'll be building this 1/200 scale, 3D printed kit of the Bombardier CRJ-1000 airliner. The -1000 series was the longest version of the CRJ (Canadair Regional Jet), family and was produced between 2010 and 2020. I bought this kit, via the Shapeways marketplace, about 7 or 8 years ago. At the time I couldn't find any aftermarket decals for the -1000, so ended up buying a couple of sheets for shorter versions (from the Canadian company, V1 Decals), in order to get the necessary number of windows. I'll be building a Croatia Airlines aircraft, using a Flightpath A319/320 sheet for their markings. Cheers

After digesting the numerous excellent build of the B747 here in this forum, I have decided that I would like to build one too. I have always wanted the B744, especially a SIA plane. Opportunity came when someone wanted to part an old Hasegawa kit but it was a Japanese government plane. I bought it anyway and this is my first commercial plane model build. I am going to depict a SIA 50th anniversary B744 taking off. So, there will be some work to do such as extended flaps and slats, and tilting main landing gears.

My recently finished builds are mostly Hasegawa 1/200 kits,and these are the first that came off the assembly line. This was one of Hasegawa's 2in1 kit releases and offers to build 3 ANA versions to be build,although you have to decide which one of the Triton Blue version you want to build. The bare metal underbelly or the all grey underbelly, like the TriStar was before retirement in 1995. I opted for the very first TriStar in the "Mohican" scheme as they were delivered in 1973 and the "Triton Blue" last flight livery with the all grey underbelly As for all Hasegawa LL200 airliner kits,the build is straight forward with no issues at all. I really love those kits as they offer easy,fun builds with quick results. The only thing I changed were the engine exhausts on the Triton version,which had to be shortened to match the later version engines. The Mohican version was left with the longer exhausts as offered in the kit. Painted entirely by airbrush using Revell and Testors enamels and coted with my Media Range Color protection spray. The windows were filled with Krystal Klear.The cockpit windows were painted inside black as the empty cockpit looked a bit off through the clear cockpit windows. Thanks for looking.... And group shots of the 2 TriStars...

This kit arrived a few weeks ago, usually, I'd wait a bit before starting a build, but I'm keen to get ahead with this Freelancer What is the Freelancer? It is a ship in the MMO game, Star Citizen. This commercial will give a fair idea of the ship and its use One thing the video shows, that I don't believe made it to production ... pretty sure those VTOL jets are fixed. The kit is among the most beautifully packaged I've seen, possibly the best packaging I've seen. The box starts with a printed wrapper: In which is a box, with magnetic seals That contains several layers of foam packing - the top layer includes the instructions and a certificate (this is a limited edition kit) Finally, we see the kit, 3D printed The larger components span two layers, this is layer two The resin, removed from its packaging Note, some parts have separated from their support sprues. This doesn't seem to be a problem. This is the cargo bay And this, upside down, so you can see the ceiling, is the rear hull. This will, eventually, wrap around the cargo bay above. Not sure if I'll use it/them, but I bought some cargo to fit inside the Freelancer Which has similar packaging These sprues have, so far, remained intact

I'll be joining with another 1/200 scale Vulcan (which was released I see, to correspond with the 30th Anniversary!). I bought mine second-hand last year and it looks nice, with all parts still in their bags. Weirdly, the war largely passed me by at the time, as I was working in Swaziland (now, Eswatini), and had to rely on local radio for my news. Of course, I've tried to catch up since Cheers

Hi all Having withdrawn my unstarted An-14 from the Group Build (due to a lack of remaining time), here's my simpler/quicker alternative offering. It's a 1/200 scale, white metal/PE kit by Shed Models of the Hunting 126, STOL research aircraft. It's a delightful little kit (if you like that sort of thing), with a pleasingly comprehensive decal sheet. The H126 was designed to allow the investigation of the 'jet flap' principle as an aid to STOL performance. It first flew in 1963 and operated from RAE Bedford. In 1969 it went to the US for a period of wind tunnel testing at NASA, before being retired from service in 1972. It currently resides in the RAF museum at Cosford. As I understand it, the thrust from the aircraft's single gas turbine engine was ducted to various outlet nozzles. 55% of the thrust was blown over the wing flaps in order to provide additional lift. 30% of the thrust went to conventional fuselage jet pipes (to provide propulsion), whilst the remaining 15% was ducted to small nozzles on the wing tips and tail to provide roll, pitch and yaw control at slow speeds (as later copied in part, on the Harrier). The net result of all this was a stall speed of just 32 mph. Cheers

It's been a while, 12 weeks ... Mo and Jo left for Spain (don't tell Boris) bad enough but they left me behind . Dipping my toe back in the water with an OOB build given to me by my good friend Dan. This kit was first released in 1984 by Imai (never heard of them ) OOB didn't last long Probably going to be displayed on a pedestal as a working tug. Wanted the antifouling to look well, fouled......... So I thought I'd try the salt technique and several shades I'm pleased with the final result Hope you're all keeping well Stay safe Kev

Hello All, I’m currently building the Trumpeter 1/200 Bismarck and I’m enjoying it very much. So much so that I’ve inadvertently bought the Hobbyboss (ex Merit I believe) 1/200 Imperial Japanese Navy pre WWI Mikasa Battleship! I promised myself I wouldn’t look at another model before I’d finished.. but I have a lack of moral fibre I’ve also bought the Mk.I Designs detail pack - the full version - there’s a value pack but I don’t think they include the brass masts or armament barrels amongst other things. This isn’t obvious though as both sets are depicted online with a set of photos of the full set. I was umming and ahhing about buying it with so much of the Bismarck to go. I was looking for something to push me over the edge and it came with the discovery that Scaledecks have a deck for this in the making. The Mk.I set has its own deck but it’s the standard type which I’m not a big fan of. I had some pretty poor fitting issues with my Scaledecks Bismarck one, but they assure me this one should be fine. I’m not sure when it’ll be available but I’ve put my name down for one. Anyway, the kit’s in the post allegedly and I’ll post some pictures when she arrives. Any photos or points of reference for the Mikasa would be most welcome. Not a ship/ conflict I was much aware of. It will however, be on the back burner until Bismarck gets done, but you know how easily led I am… Thanks for looking in Guy

SS Nomadic, Transborder, the little sister of the Titanic, at 1/200. Launch at the Harland & Wolff shipyard in Belfast: The ship in Cherbourg, its home port: Other Nomadic Names (1910 - 1934) Ingénieur Minard (1934 - 1974) Nomadic (1974 - in service) Type Transborder Length 71,17 m Width 11.28 m Tonnage 1,273 t. Propulsion 2 double expansion compound steam engines Speed 10 knots Shipyard Harland & Wolff, in Belfast Shipowner White Star Line (1911 - 1927) Cherbourg transshipment company (1927 - 1934) Cherbourg Towing and Salvage Company (1934 - 1940) Royal Navy (1940 - 1945) Cherbourg Towing and Salvage Company (1945 - 1974) United Kingdom Pavilion Construction December 22, 1910 Launch April 25, 1911 Inaugural voyage May 27, 1911 Passengers 1.000 Crew members 14 The SS Nomadic, sometimes referred to as the "Titanic's little sister", is a White Star Line steamship commissioned in 1911. It is a ferry put into service to embark passengers of the new Olympic class liners in the port of Cherbourg unsuitable for their large size. At that time, it operated in duo with the Traffic: the Nomadic carried first and second class passengers while the second carried third class passengers and luggage. In 1927, the White Star Line sold it to the Cherbourg Transshipment Company, which used it for the same purpose and with the same name. In 1934, it was sold again, this time to the Cherbourg Towing and Salvage Company, which renamed it Ingénieur Minard. During the Second World War, the ship manages to escape to Great Britain where it is used by the Royal Navy. It was then returned to the port of Cherbourg, where it was used as a ferry for the Queen Mary and the Queen Elizabeth. Retired from service in 1968, she was sold to a private individual six years later. The latter transformed it into a floating restaurant on the Seine. Twenty-five years later, destined for the scrapyard, it was saved by the action of associations which led to its return to Belfast to be restored to its original state. The Nomadic is the last remaining vessel of the White Star Line that is still (almost) afloat. http://aftitanic.free.fr/wsl/nomadic_1911.html https://titanicbelfast.com/Explore/Nomadic-Belfast.aspx The plan of Bateau Modèles N°105 will help me to model, although it has a small error in the positioning of the hawsers on the side view but not on the front view, nothing serious, the base is good and probably, at first sight, taken from the original plan. Some modifications have been made over the decades on this ship. My version will be that of the first two photos, just before the installation of a bridge shelter in Cherbourg to shelter the sailors, the wheelhouse and the chadburn. http://rms-titanic.fr/otb/index_nomadic.html 3D drawing Emil Besirevic. The goal of this Nomadic project is to put on board my future Titanic 1/200 from Trumpeter and the ferry as it was during its stopover in Cherbourg in 1912. I started 3D drawing a few days ago: 8 hours 3D printing tonight of the first hull prototype. It's very successful in terms of shape and details, much better than on the T2 tanker, but the resin is broken at the end of printing, a lack of support probably, and a lack of experience on my part with this much faster printer that stresses the part a little more when it tears at the bottom of the tank. My transparent film at the bottom of the tray is pierced in two places and I don't have a spare for the moment, spare FEP films were supplied with my first Anycubic printer, but not with this one, they are not available on their website (!?). So I ordered from the "aftermarket" which will probably do the trick. The main thing is that the model is very clean by itself, and that the printer works perfectly, I will certainly reduce the speed of the stepper motor to avoid this kind of misadventure. That's the game, we learn every day with 3D printing! Holy And mistakes are paid cash... Hull hollowing: Height 180 mm. That is to say half of the ship. Anycubic Mono X printer. It looks like it hit an iceberg, but from the wrong side! This is the best hull surface quality I've been able to print.

I almost finished the Bismarck at 1/200 from Trumpeter, it's a big job, started in january 2019. It's was my first plastic ship model tu build since 1975.. Here are some pictures of the assembly progress. For the occasion, I bought two PE improvement kits, MK1 and Eduard. I took the best of the 2 kits. I bought the wooden deck to USA. I have used the probable scheme of the 24 may 1941: Began by the Arado 196 A3 plane. It's small.. I cut the wing. I want to park one in the one hangar. Not the good color, i used later for other one RML72 , RML73 and RML65 The Bismarck was equipped with reconnaissance aircraft, patrol missions and artillery spotting. Four Arado Ar 196 seaplanes were embarked on board the Bismarck, but a maximum number of six could be embarked if necessary. They were very robust, single-engine, heavily armed double float planes. Two aircraft were stored in the double hangar of 120 m² located under the main mast and the other two in single hangars of 60 m² each on both sides of the chimney in the middle of the ship. To save space, their wings could be folded. These aircraft belonged to the 1st Squadron ( 1.Staffel ) of the reconnaissance group 196 ( Bordfliegergruppe 196 ) which had been formed before the war in 1937, and the pilots and technicians were members of the Luftwaffe . The aircraft were launched on a double telescopic catapult, 32 meters long, which could be extended beyond the sides of the ship to a length of 48 meters. This catapult was located in the middle of the ship (section X-XI) between the main mast and the funnel and could be deployed on both sides. After completing a mission, the aircraft would land near one side of the ship and then be craned aboard by one of the large 12-ton cranes. This was always a dangerous manoeuvre, as the sea conditions had to be sufficiently mild to board the vessel. Once out of the water, two more small cranes located under the searchlight platform were used to return the aircraft to its hangar. In the early morning of 27 May 1941, on board Bismarck , they attempted to launch an Arado Ar 196 carrying the ship's war log. Unfortunately, the catapult was damaged and the plane could not be launched. Ar196 A-3 CHARACTERISTICS: - Type: two-seater reconnaissance seaplane. - Dimensions: wingspan 12.4 metres, length 11 metres, height 4.4 metres. - Weight: Empty 2,335 kg, loaded 3,300 kg. - Armament: 2 x 20 mm MG FF (in the wings). 1 x 7.92 mm MG (front). 2 x 7.92 mm MG (twins). 2 x 50 kg bombs of the SC50, SD50 or LC50F types (under the wings). 1) - Engine BMW 132K, 9 cylinders, 960 hp. - Max. speed: 320 km / h. - Range: 497 nm. - Crew: 2 men. 1) On board the Bismarck, there was a stock of 40 SC50 / SD50 and 54 times LC50F bombs, all stored on the upper deck, in section IX (box 91.3-95.55), port side.

I´m planning to do the Trumpeter Rodney with the Pontos set in 1/200 at some stage, probably when i´ve got mor spare time than now. But a big part of the fun is research i´m doing in advance and finding interesting add ons. I just came across the Micro Master goodies on the net and wanted to ask if anybody had some experience with Micro Master? And are there some cpecial pieces one would recommend for building the Rodney? I´m quite keen on the charley floats. What about range finders? Boats? Hatches? As said before i´ve got the Pontos set and would only try to get those things that are a real improvement. Or does anybody know a mail adress so i could contact them directly? I could not find one on their website.... Thanks in advance, Xtof

The USS Hornet (CV-8), the seventh U.S. Navy ship of that name, was a U.S. Navy Yorktown Class aircraft carrier. During the Second World War, she launched the Doolittle Raid on Tokyo and participated in the Battle of Midway and the Buin-Faisi-Tonolai Raid. In the Solomon Islands campaign, she participated in the capture and defence of Guadalcanal and the battle of the Santa Cruz Islands where she was irretrievably damaged by enemy torpedoes and dive bombers. In the face of an approaching Japanese surface force, the Hornet was abandoned and then torpedoed and sunk by approaching Japanese destroyers. The Hornet was in service for a year and six days and was the last aircraft carrier of the American fleet ever sunk by enemy fire. For these actions she received four stars of service, a citation for the Doolittle Raid in 1942, and her 8 Torpedo Squadron received a Presidential Unit Commendation for extraordinary heroism for the Battle of Midway. His wreck was located in late January 2019 near the Solomon Islands. Merit stopped producing this box a year and a half ago. It's not easy to find a used one now at a reasonable price. This box is replaced by the Yorktown at Trumpeter, but there is no kit available at the moment as far as I know... I added the MK1 kit and the MK1 wooden deck kit (also with PE inside). I've been working on forward for two days now. I find that there are some details missing, but the reason, at least for the foredeck (it's not really a forecastle) is probably that there are no pictures of this part of the ship to my knowledge. Only a few shots from outside can help a little. Moreover this part is under the flight deck and less visible compared to the rest. So you have to have a little imagination... The front end of the Yorktown CV-5, not necessarily identical. Some pictures of the progress: Installation of the portholes, then of a transparent rhodoïd behind. Improvement of the shingles by simulating a shingle with a file, few details... The front AA platform, the shielding is not easy to mount, it must be perfectly formed to fit . I've added two small lattice platforms for the cannons. I also added a ladder because nothing is planned at Merit to go up there... Luckily, I still have some Bismarck. The two front paravans. I counted 9 pieces for one... I've added some access hatches on the deck. I have also reproduced the soldering lines of the deck and the forward block with the cutter. The port door has since been straightened. I don't know what the two holes in the deck near the capstans are for, a mystery, I'll hide them with an access plate probably... I still have the anchor lashings to install. (Scratch) Compared to the plan of the Yorktown, two mooring bollards are missing on the rear of the manoeuvring range. Trumpeter's ship must never dock... There's scratch in the air... PS: A little reminder of the marine terms used especially on the guys. This book has followed me throughout my career... A gold mine.

Hi folk's,my eternal quest to build another ship model continues.I had hope's of building Airfix's Gt Western but much as I washed,scrubbed and swore at it I could not get paint to stick to the plastic! I've had similar issues with their white plastic on some old aircraft kit's.Anyway I was about to give up when I saw this kit on e-bay for a tenner,the seller had a good set of photo's and identified a few bit's missing including a cannon and the sails were a write off. I quite like the look of sailing ships in port as it were without the sail's so took a punt,made a start last night.

Another quick and easy build in between bigger projects was this Hasegawa 737. Despite their older airliners,Hasegawa went here a slightly different way. The fuselage halves are split horizontaly and there are no windows and no detail on the fuselage as well. Here they offer also a wheels up otion,wich I find nice. All details are on the excellent decal sheet,thats when this model comes to life. Luckily Hasegawa went back to the roots with their newer airliner kits,wich have nice recessed panellines and are also more detailed. The 737-400 and also the MD-81/87 they released are nice but more in the way of desktop models. A good introduction into the modelling world for newbees or a nice destraction from bigger projects,one gets a pleasant result in a short time. Cheers

Well not really! It’s actually Eastern Airlines 5th TriStar that was used for the 1972 summer world tour by the Lockheed Aircraft Company of California. The aircraft came to the U.K. to be demonstrated to the two British customers for the TriStar- Courtline Aviation, and BEA. Arriving at Luton airport the headquarters of Courtline, 305 was adorned with Court titles and logos in preparation for promo flights around various U.K. airports, ending with a flight to Palma, on the island of Mallorca-a typical destination for the airline. The next stop for 305 would be a short hop down to London Heathrow, where BEA titles and tail markings were hastily applied in preparation for further publicity flights and a residency at the ‘Farnborough 72’ trade show. Onto the model, this is the venerable but still very accurate Hasegawa example first rolled around 1980! Sadly these models are becoming rarer all the time and commanding extortionate prices on auction sites. The only mods I made were to add the early type thrust reverser jacks to the RB-211’s made out of plastic Rod, and the extendable tail skid (courtesy of a pin!) Paints used were Halfords appliance white, Xtracolour light aircraft grey, and Humbrol chrome silver from a rattle can. The only problem I encountered with the build was with the Classic Airlines decals. Although beautifully printed they did not seem to match the Hasegawa model, and required some trimming and touching up. One place where this is really noticeable is the Courtline titles on the aircrafts belly which do not represent how they appeared on the actual aircraft-and after referencing and re-referencing numerous photos of 305, it is not my painting skills at fault(!) Overall though I’m pleased with the finished result in this unusual hybrid livery. Any comments or feedback is much appreciated-Thanks for looking.

I'm not sure if this can fall under the category of scale modelling in the forum since technically this wasn't built from a kit, but I figure it uses the same subset of skills to do. The Airbus A330-300 is a twin-aisle airliner designed and built by Airbus. Having first flown in 1992 and developed in parallel with the longer-range Airbus A340, the A330 is a prominent aircraft model in the widebody short-to-long-haul market, and has recently been updated with a successor model, the A330neo. This model depicts an A330-300 of Cathay Pacific Airways, registration B-HLV, in the older Brushwing livery. It's a snap-fit model by Hogan Wings in 1/200 that used to be in the livery of Saudi Arabian Airlines. Here are the photos: For comparison, here's a Before/After: I detailed some of the processes in making it in the thread here, although I wasn't really able to update it all the way through: This was painted with mostly Tamiya acrylics and MRP lacquers, with Alclad Aqua gloss being the final clearcoat. I designed the decals myself although some of them came from images of decals available online. Various modifications were made like the corrected tail fairing and added antennas and domes. I decided to keep the weathering very light this time around because in my experience it's very easy to overdo it in 1/200 scale. In terms of this kind of restripping work the model itself made the work very straightforward and easy. The breakdown of parts meant that I could easily paint components separately and leave fragile parts off until the end of the build, much like with actual model kits. And because the model is for the most part pre-built and designed to have a snug fit rather than needing glue, there was little to no body work or sanding and filling involved. The most difficult part of the project was mostly the painstaking work involved with sizing and optimizing the decals over and over again to make sure it fit on this specific model, and so I would definitely recommend this kind of work as an in-between in scale model kit assembly and buying a pre-made kit model, and the possibilities are many with the large quantity of available snap-fit models in 1/200 scale. Although not as finely detailed as injection-molded scale model kits, the detail is sufficient in my opinion to fit in a collection of Hasegawa kits, for example. And with the relative rarity of cheap A330 kits available, Hogan Wings' plastic snap-fits are a very reasonable compromise. And another interesting detail to note with Hogan Wings models in particular is that parts are included to display the model with the wheels up or with landing gear. This means that they can be left off from the model until the end of the build or entirely and it makes painting a lot easier. Thanks for reading!

Hi all. My entry for this GB will be my second Nordic build of the year - my first being a Finnish Il-28 in the Nordic GB. I'm planning to represent each of the five Nordic countries over the course of 2020 and this time it's Norway's turn! I'm therefore going to build an Arado Ar,196 float plane, that was briefly operated (for just 11 days to be precise), by the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. As many of you will know, the Ar.196 was standard issue for larger German warships during WWII and sure enough, my Norwegian plane actually started its career aboard the cruiser Admiral Hipper. At the beginning of April 1940, the Admiral Hipper formed part of the flotilla carrying German troops for the invasion of Norway. On 8th April, whilst en-route up the Norwegian coastline, Admiral Hipper and the German destroyer Bernd von Arnim, engaged the RN destroyer HMS Glowworm and ultimately sank her. At the start of the engagement, as was standard practice, Admiral Hipper launched its Ar.196. Unfortunately, due to bad weather, the plane was unable to return to the ship and had to make a forced landing at Lyngstad, in Norway. After apparently trying to buy fuel from some locals, the aircrew were detained and handed over to the Norwegian police. Meanwhile the plane was towed away, repainted with Norwegian markings and assimilated into the Royal Norwegian Navy Air Service. On 18th April, the Ar.196 was successfully evacuated to Britain by a Norwegian pilot, but was shortly afterwards destroyed in a crash (whilst being flown by a British pilot), en route for testing at the Helensburgh air base. For a kit, I'll be using one of Trumpeter's 1/200 scale series of naval aircraft. These are sold as supplements to Trumpeter's 1/200 scale warship kits (the Bismark in this case), but are sweet little kits in their own right. I made their Walrus in last year's Float Plane GB and really enjoyed it. Unusually, the kits are moulded in clear plastic - which thankfully is not at all brittle. Strangely, Trumpeter have chosen not to provide a plastic canopy piece, but instead give you a PE frame which has to be folded into shape. No reference is made to glazing. I'm not sure if glazing is necessary in this scale, but it should be easy enough to do using Krystal Klear if necessary. PE is also provided for the floats' bracing wires. It'll be March before I start, but I'm looking forward to it! Cheers